The Worst Christmas
by seddiefan2009
Summary: “Look dorkboy, you’re going home whether you like it or not; even if this flight doesn’t leave until the day after Christmas. Cause you wanna go back. So if I have to force you onto the plane then so be it," Sam yelled at him through gritted teeth. Gen.


Disclaimer: I own nothing…

Freddie still wasn't sure why they were here, on Christmas Eve waiting for a flight that may not even take off. He glanced over at his two best friends; Sam was laid out over three seats, her head in Carly's lap, snoring loudly. Carly's head was against the wall behind her, also asleep. He had the urge to get up and walk around, to get the kinks out of his legs but a quick glance at their luggage followed by a glance around the overcrowded Detroit airport stopped him from doing so.

Sparing a second to hold his wrist up to his face he realized that they'd been here for over eight hours. Sighing, he buried his head in hands and put his thumbs to the corners of his eyes to rub them. Shaking his head clear he looked up into the crowd, all sitting in various places in chairs and on the floor, most looking bored, frustrated or upset.

"Freddie," he heard Sam mumble groggily from her spot next to him as she stretched her legs. Her feet moved over his legs and then fell violently on them. He let out gasp as the back of her shin met a very delicate part.

"What?" She asked, sitting up and rubbing her eyes.

"You kicked me," came his strangled reply.

"What? Oh," her face filled with comprehension before she burst out into laughter.

"S'not funny Sam," he breathed, still in pain.

"Yes it is," She laughed softly, not wanting to wake Carly.

Freddie closed his eyes and willed himself to breathe through the pain. After a moment he reopened them to see Sam's smirking face.

He gave her his best annoyed look to which she replied, "Oh please I didn't kick you that hard."

"How do you know? You don't remember doing it."

She raised an eyebrow and tucked her bottom lip under her top as she considered his comment and then smiled widely and said, "True, but usually when I kick hard I can still feel it in my shin and I don't feel it so I couldn't have kicked you that hard."

He gave her a skeptical look before sighing, "Look now that you're up I'm gonna go see how much longer it's gonna be."

"Kay, get me some bacon when you pass that restaurant."

Freddie nodded as he got up and stretched. He started walking to his left as he heard Sam's chuckle and realized he was walking in the wrong direction. He turned and quickly walked past his girls.

He quickly found the desk; there weren't too many people in line, surprisingly. He quickly made his way to the front of the line.

"How can I help you sir?" The trying too hard to be nice woman asked.

"Um, yes, I was wondering when flight 825 to Seattle would be leaving?" He asked as nicely as his frustration would allow.

"Sir I'm sorry but all flights have been postponed until tomorrow because of the blizzard. We'd be happy to recommend a hotel nearby if you'd like."

He shook his head, "What I'd like is to be home for Christmas, could you help me with that please?"

"I'm sorry sir but all flights are grounded. There's a shuttle every fifteen minutes that'll take you to a hotel if you'd like but that's all I can do." She explained tiredly.

"No, I think you could help me if you wanted too," he raised his voice, unsure of why he was so angry.

"Sir I'm going to have to ask you to calm down or I'll call security."

He slammed his hands down on the counter as he felt a rough hand on his shoulder. Thinking it was security he moved to shake it off, but was stopped by Sam's voice, "Whoa there, whattya think you're doin'?"

"Sam you were supposed to stay with Carly and our stuff," he yelled at her, finally letting the frustration of the day blow.

"Carly's awake and with our stuff," she said evenly, unaffected by his yelling.

He deflated a bit, "Oh."

"Yeah, now come on Fredly you're buying mama somethin' to eat," she pulled him over to the restaurant.

He followed wordlessly as she moved into the restaurant and pushed him unceremoniously into a seat before sitting down across from him.

He remained quiet as he laid his head on the table, picked it up and banged his forehead back down unto it.

The waitress interrupted his thoughts, "What can I get you today?"

Before he could sit up and speak Sam answered. "I'll have two orders of bacon for now, and we'll both have coffee, you'll have to come back for the rest of our order once the dork finishes his meltdown."

The waitress nodded a small smirk on her tired face as she'd seen more than one meltdown that day.

Once the waitress was gone Sam spoke, "Ok dork what's wrong?"

He didn't pick his head up, instead speaking with his forehead rested against the table, "I don't know."

"Really?" She asked knowingly.

"Yes really and why are you so calm? You're usually the impatient one; I figured you'd be the first to freak out at spending Christmas in an unknown city, in an airport." He finally picked his head up and starred at her.

She shrugged, "Christmas doesn't really mean all that much to me I guess, I'd just spend the day with you and Carly anyway." She answered honestly, with a shrug of the shoulders so he wouldn't take it very seriously.

"Urg," he screamed, banging his head back onto the table repeatedly.

"Is this about your mom?" She asked knowingly. His head shot up to glare at her, but she was focused on the plate on bacon moving towards her.

The waitress set the plate on the table, followed by a pitcher of coffee and two mugs.

"You two ready yet?"

Sam answered with a mouth full of bacon, "Not yet, let him hit his head against the table six more times then we'll be ready."

The waitress nodded before leaving.

Sam turned her head back to Freddie, "What?"

"Why would you ask me that?"

"Ask you what?" She spat out as she finished the bacon.

"About my mom."

She let out a little sigh before picking up the pot of coffee and pouring each of them a cup, "I don't know what you're going through, but I can only guess its worse this time of year."

Not answering her comment he instead asked, "Why are we even here?"

She picked up eight packets of sugar and ripped them open, pouring them into her coffee as she spoke, "Because we all wanted to go home for Christmas and we wanted to see Carly so she scheduled our flights here so we could all fly the rest of the way together."

"I know that," he replied sharply, "I meant why didn't I just stay in Chicago for Christmas? It's not like there's anyone waiting for me to spend Christmas with in Seattle."

She gave him a tolerant look. "Look Fredison we both know that you wouldn't have liked spending Christmas alone any better than your liking it stuck in this airport. I've given you a break 'cause your mom just died and all that chizz, especially since it's the first Christmas since that car accident but you're gonna end up ruining Carly's Christmas and I know you don't wanna do that. So just get it out now and when we get back to her slap a smile on your face and make the best of it."

He banged his head against the table again before mumbling, "I know. I shouldn't ruin you or Carly's Christmas but…" He trailed off.

"But what?" She questioned, her elbows on the table in front of her, her head resting in her hands as she stared intently at him.

"But I don't know if I can do this," he spoke quietly, picking his head up and banging it back down onto the table.

She picked her head up and moved her right hand to his hair, pulling him up roughly.

"Look, I'm only going to say this once, so listen up. You can. It's gonna be tough as hell, to be back there without her. But you can do it, and hey s'not like you'll be alone." With that she released his hair which resulted in his head banging back down onto the table.

He let off a half laugh as he lifted his head, "I know, it's just these last few months have been hard." He said honestly, with a sadness in his voice that had been increasingly frequent since the funeral.

It's really had been a hard few months. Both Sam and Carly had flown home for the funeral and stood by him as he watched them bury his mother. They'd taken turns cooking for him the week he'd been home, and then forced him to the airport when he had to go back to school, even going all the way to Chicago and following him into the Northwestern dorms as they were afraid he wouldn't really go back. Carly had called both him and his roommate every day. She called his roommate every night to find out what his schedule for the next day was and she called him every morning to wake him up. She routinely called him three or four times throughout the day to make sure he was getting things done and to ask how he was. It was sweet, but utterly annoying. Sam had also gotten a little protective of him since the funeral, seeing him so completely broken hadn't set well with her. She wasn't nearly as overprotective as Carly, but she nonetheless called him every day. She usually tried to talk to him about other things, things that would get his mind off of what happened and back on track. He was grateful for their concern and oddly enough it had helped. Carly's worrying, all the way from NYU reminded him of his mother's worrying all the way from Seattle. And Sam's tales of spitting at the people visiting Dingo World in Florida were close enough to normal that they allowed him at least a few minutes a day without the weight of knowing that'd he'd never see his mother again on his chest.

She inhaled deeply before cocking her head to the side to get a better look at him, "I know."

He slammed his head back on the table, "Then why are you making me do this?"

Her mouth set into a straight line, "Who else will? If not for me and Carly you'd probably never go back to Seattle again."

"Why should I? I have no family there, most of my family's in Boise. You and Carly are the only people I still talk to from high school and she's at NYU and you work at Dingo World in Florida. The only person in Seattle I remotely want to see is Spencer. Wouldn't it have been easier for him to come to us?"

Sam shrugged, "You know how Carly is. She wants all of us home for Christmas. And like it or not Seattle is home."

"I know," he mumbled into the table.

"Look dorkboy, you're going home whether you like it or not; even if this flight doesn't leave until the day after Christmas. Cause you wanna go back. So if I have to force you onto the plane then so be it, I'll have fun with it. But until then we're all gonna have a good time and you're stop sulking around like that. I get it, it's hard but the last thing your mother would want is for you to act like this." Her words, though sweet, were yelled through gritted teeth as she tried not to get kicked out before they could order.

He lifted his head back to Sam, "Look what do you know about it, huh?"

"I know enough to know that you need to stop actin' like a baby," She yelled back at him as he slammed his head into the table for the fifth time since the waitress had brought their coffee. She immediately felt bad and whispered in a much softer, though still hard as steel voice, "Benson, your mother loved you, you were the most important thing in her life. She wouldn't have wanted your life to end just because hers did."

His head remained pressed into the table, but his body shook as he moved his arms onto the table, his right arm moving under his face as he mumbled incoherently.

"What was that?" She asked as she took a sip of her coffee.

He lifted his head, "I asked if you knew what the last thing I said to my mom was."

She shook her head, "Can't say I do."

He laughed humorlessly, "Well I really wish you did, because I don't either."

"What?"

"I don't remember the last thing I ever said to my mom. All I remember is that I was in the middle of a really tough week, I had three exams, and I ignored her calls because I knew she'd want to talk for hours. What a great son I was huh? The most important person in her life can't even answer the damn phone when she calls." He speaks lowly, as if he's cursing himself.

"I'm sure she understood, school's important to you and it was important to her too." She finished off the last of her coffee, pouring the rest into her mug and grabbing more sugar.

Freddie reached down for his coffee for the first time, picking up two creamers and four packets of sugar and mixing them in before taking a small sip.

"So that's what been bothering you all this time?" Sam finally asked, breaking the silence.

"I guess, at least that's the worst of it."

She nodded. "Better?"

He looked over to her, dropped his head back onto the table and sat back up, "A little. Um, and you know, thanks."

"For what?" She asked as the waitress walked back over to them.

"Not hating me." He said simply.

She gave him a questioning look as they ordered. Once she left Sam asked, "Why would I hate you?"

"I don't know, I just feel like people should hate me for how I treated her, you know?"

Sam stopped herself from laughing as he was being completely serious. "Freddie, sure you may have not treated her the best but believe me you did the best you could with her fruit battiness."

"Fruit battiness?"

Sam shrugged in response.

"I know; it's just hard to remember all that right now."

Their food arrived just as Sam started to recall Freddie's first date.

By the time they'd finished eating Freddie was laughing for the first time in months.

"Come on Dorkington, Carly's probably worried."

Freddie nodded, getting up and pulling out enough money to pay the bill. He quickly threw an extra five bucks on the table.

"No, you wanna leave ten."

"Why the bill was only twenty?"

"Because she had to deal with your meltdown," she said as she lightly hit him in the back of the head.

He just pulled another five out of his wallet.

Sam continued her tales of the fruit battiness of Mrs. Benson the whole way back to Carly.

By the time they reached her Freddie was laughing so hard he couldn't speak.

Carly looked up from her book and smiled at Freddie's laughing form. Sam sat down next to Carly and Freddie next to her.

"So the flight won't be leaving tonight I guess?" Carly questioned.

"Nope." Sam answered.

"Should we try to get a hotel?"

"Yeah probably." Freddie answered standing up and grabbing his bags.

Carly and Sam each followed suit, Carly stuffing things into her bags and zipping them.

The trio quickly made their way through the airport to the shuttle. They got there just as the shuttle was preparing to leave. The ride to the Best Eastern was less than five minutes long. They quickly ran into the hotel and got their room taken care of.

Unfortunately, with it being Christmas Eve there was only one single room available. So they'd arranged for a cot to be taken upstairs for Freddie to sleep on.

The three went upstairs and found their room, all the way at the end of the hall. They quickly opened the door and shuffled in, each throwing their things on the table in the corner.

"Well I'm gonna take a shower," Sam announced as she grabbed her bag and moved to go into the bathroom.

Freddie sat on the bed as Carly went over to the table and pulled something out of her bag. She walked over to Freddie and handed it to him.

"What's this?" He asked as he eyed the beautifully wrapped present.

"Just open it," She smiled at him.

He slowly removed the beautiful silver ribbon that held the package together and then ripped the green Santa paper off quickly.

"I figured you probably wouldn't be getting a lot of gifts this year so this is actually the first of a few I have for you, but the rest aren't as sentimental. I know this Christmas has been hard for you so I thought I'd make it a little better."

He raised an eyebrow as he opened the box to find a DVD.

"Well, play it on your laptop."

He moved to set his laptop up as she opened the case and handed him the disc.

They settled in against the head board, and Carly leaned her head onto Freddie's shoulder as the disc started playing.

He gasped as he saw his mother's living room on the screen. It was followed quickly by other family pictures, some of his mother and father, some of him as a baby, some of his family. It moved on through the years. There was a picture of his mother holding him back as he tried to run into the classroom on his first day of kindergarten, as well as one of him and his mother at his father's funeral. His mother was crying her eyes out as he handed her a flower from the casket in an attempt to cheer her up.

Slowly the pictures turned into videos. He watched himself graduate from the fifth grade in a tweed jacket and bow tie while his mother fawned over him. And a few clips later he saw himself eating asparagus on iCarly.

All too soon the videos stopped and he finally broke down. Carly moved the laptop off his lap and quickly enveloped him in a big hug. He cried into her shoulder for what felt like hours, comforted even more by the hand across his back.

"It's okay Freddie, let it out." Carly whispered to him.

He let out great hiccupping sobs that shook both him and Carly as he let out the pain and anguish that had built up over the past few months. Slowly the tears stopped and he went lax against her shoulder, simply leaning into her and taking comfort in one of the few constants left in his life. And he thought with irony that Sam and Spencer were the only others left.

Just then the door opened and Sam walked in carrying a pizza. "Done?" She questioned.

Carly answered softly, "Yup I think the plan worked."

Sam nodded as she sat at the end of the bed and opened the pizza.

"I thought you were taking a shower," Freddie commented.

"I was, like an hour ago. You've been crying for a while Freddo."

"Oh," Was his only response.

The three reached in and pulled out a slice of pizza, and Sam moved herself to sit at the head of the bed on Freddie's other side. He sat back quietly between the two girls.

Suddenly he remembered their conversation, "What plan?"

Carly and Sam both laughed, and Carly answered, "We know you haven't really cried about this yet. You haven't really dealt with it. So we had this big plan to get you home for Christmas and make you deal with it."

"Yeah but the flight got delayed so we to improvise." Sam added, grabbing another slice of pizza.

"Well if there's one thing the two of you are good at it's improv." Freddie commented idly, before finishing off his pizza.

Each of the girls graced him with a genuine laugh.

"Okay so I think we should go ahead and exchange gifts. It might make it seem a little more like Christmas," Carly suggested.

"That sounds good," Sam answered as Carly got up and got her bag, pulling out four gifts and handing two to Freddie and two to Sam.

Sam started ripping her gifts open before Carly could even sit down.

"Sam!" Carly chastised.

"It's okay Carly, let her." Freddie smiled over to her and Carly let it drop because it really was normal and it felt oddly comforting.

Sam let out a squeal as she pulled out the final season DVD of Girly Cow. "Thank you!" She yelled, reaching over Freddie to hug Carly.

Freddie cleared his throat as the girls split apart.

"Okay, now open your other one," Carly commanded as Sam started ripping open her second gift.

"Aww, a t-shirt from that Cuttlefish concert you went to last month."

"Yeah," Carly shrugged, "Since you couldn't be there I thought you'd like it. Now Freddie it's your turn."

He smiled as he quickly opened his gifts, the first of which was a new external hard drive and the second being the new operating system software that he'd been saving up for before the funeral. In the haze of the past few months he'd all but forgotten about it. He smiled over at Carly, leaning in and giving her a hug. "Thanks."

"You're welcome."

Freddie pulled himself up and got two gift bags out of his backpack, handing one to each of the girls.

"It's not a lot, I kinda forgot to go shopping until the last minute and I tried to wrap them, but I'm not very good at it."

"It's okay Freddie," Carly smiled at him as she opened her gift, a cashmere sweater. "Thank you."

Sam mumbled a quick thank you as she stuffed a fat cake in her mouth. Her gift had been a bag of fat cakes and beef jerky.

He smiled as he sat back down and Sam scrambled up grabbing two gifts, each in tied MallMart bags and threw one at each of her friends.

Freddie and Carly each opened their bags, expecting to find tacky trinkets from the Dingo World gift shop. Instead Carly opened hers to find a pair of shoes that she'd seen and wanted.

"Where'd you find them? I've been everywhere looking for them."

Sam shrugged in response.

Freddie couldn't get the knot on the bag untied, so he just ripped the bag open. Inside he found the newest model of PearPhone. He laughed as he looked over to her and smiled, "You're a pretty good friend Sam."

She again shrugged off the comment, ripping open a bag of beef jerky.

"No really, my mom always got me a new PearPhone for Christmas, how'd you know?"

"I just took a wild guess," she said with a mouthful of beef jerky.

He just shook his head and leaned back against the headboard and watched as Carly slipped her new sweater over her head and tried on her new shoes. He turned a little to see Sam finishing off a bag of jerky and opening a package of fat cakes. Maybe this Christmas wasn't the worst ever after all.

A/N: So there's my attempt at a Christmas oneshot. I wanted to do something gen and nonshippy that let out a little of my angsty feelings about Christmas. Although my reason for angsty Christmas feelings are a little different than Freddie's. Not sure about the ending, it feels a little too fluffy to me but it fits with the whole Christmas theme I think. Thanks for reading and Merry Christmas.


End file.
